There
must be something hardwired
into the human genetic code that makes people
think that the stranger
the design and the more outlandish the performance claims,
the more likely it is that this is the breakthrough we've been waiting for!Gimme a
break!Ask
for the data. You want kilowatt
hours into the grid or your batteries, right?
Ask the sales weasels and/ or
manufacturers to show you real world energy
production data. 3rd party
verified even better! And the happy customers to go with that data!Don't ask me to install some off the
wall whoopdedoo lawn art turbine
that just
rolled off the boat from China.
Oh...you saw it spin? Totally useless piece of
information. Pinwheels spin too
but they don't make energy. And you say it was
showing 1000 watts
on the meter? Great....but
what kind of energy will it produce?
I bet no one knows
for sure. It's still in testing
in outer Mongolia and you can't get
there to see it. Let me
know how that works out for
you!Bottom line people.....you want:

Real world, honest and verifiable energy production data

References....real customers, happy ones

A warranty of at least 5 years (will the manufacturer be
around that long?)

If all you want is kinetic lawn
art, then you can ignore the
advice above. Have fun!
But do watch out for the
hamster ball of death....you'll know it when you see
it....
VAWTs are the energy source of the future and they always will be (thanks Mark!)

Much as I want to use that tired old line
"there's no such thing as a stupid question"
I just can't! Truth is...there
ARE stupid questions out there and I certainly get my
share!Now to be fair, most folks simply
don't know how renewable energy works
and it's up to
folks like me to help educate
them. We were all there at one time and a little
tolerance
and patience goes a long way when
educating the public. I actually enjoy teaching folks
how this
stuff works, otherwise I wouldn't give over 35 presentations each year.
But some
people manage to cross that
invisible line.......Why can't I put my
solar array inside
my barn? And why couldn't the wind turbine go
there too?Can I run a fan
off my batteries to
make my turbine spin to
charge the batteries when
there's no wind? Do these turbines make much sound?
Because you know, sound travels a long wayon a still nightin the country.....

I
have some classic answers for these that I may post at a later
date....

E.W.....thanks for getting me
started on this!

Life is a circus. We don't own the circus, we only perform in it

"Sometimes
I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits"Contrary
to popular belief, I do not suffer from insanity....truth is, I
enjoy every minute of
it!

Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

I want to sound off about something that
really bugs me....people who want to install
a wind turbine on the
roof of their home. It's an incredibly bad idea! Will it work?
Yes.....but not very well. And even if it never damages your roof, it will NOT
produce
much energy. How do I know?
What makes me such an expert???I installed a small turbine on a 10'
mast on my roof a long time ago. No, I didn't
know any better and yes, it
came down...about 1 year later in an 86 mph wind gust...
because
the roof was not designed to handle the stresses unique to wind turbines.
It also never produced more than
about 20% of the energy should have if it had been
installed correctly....on a nice tall tower. We did sort
of like the sound of "free energy" coursing through the building's
framing and we really appreciated the way it
removed
100 square feet of shingles
and 1 sheet of 5/8 plywood decking...but I digress.So, to clarify my original statement
....what really bugs me are the people who still
want to try it even
when they know it
hasn't worked well for anyone else! So I say....if you
figure out a way to change the laws of physics...the same ones that
govern
the wind, then go for it! Otherwise, put that a REAL turbine on a REAL
tower,
tall enough to
be well above obstructions and at a GOOD wind site, where the wind turbine
fuel lives!

If
you really do learn from your mistakes, I should be the smartest guy
around!

Maybe
the next subject will be those criminally short 10 meter towers that
one company offers
for their turbines....you guys know who you are!
Oh well, too late now, they went out of business for some reason ;-)

By the way, us old
timers have a name for those criminally short towers......fence
posts!
To hell with
performance......it looks really nice!

"Society is like a stew.
If
you don't keep it stirred up, you get a lot of scum on top."~Edward Abbey~Just because
you're
unique it doesn't mean you're useful!